Millbrae fears adding HSR tracks to train station will derail TOD

Published Thursday, October 25, 2007, by the San Mateo Daily Journal City worries large-scale development set to derail By Heather Murtagh New plans to put

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, Oct 25, 2007

Published Thursday, October 25, 2007, by the San Mateo Daily Journal

City worries large-scale development set to "derail"

By Heather Murtagh

New plans to put four train tracks through Millbrae rather than two
for a high-speed rail proposal could damper the city's vision for a
large mixed-use development around the Millbrae Station.

City officials are obviously concerned yet Caltrain officials believe
the reconfiguration can be done within the current station's
footprint. Mark Simon, special assistant to CEO Mike Scanlon of the
San Mateo County Transit District, will speak at tonight's Millbrae
City Council meeting and opted not to comment further until then.

At the meeting, the City Council will vote to approve a response to
the California High Speed Rail Authority's plan for a high-speed
trail between the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Until now, the
city believed the plan through Millbrae included two plans. The most
recent version of the plan doubles the tracks which potentially cuts
into land slated for a massive eight-acre, six-story, mixed-use
redevelopment area known as Site One. That area ends at El Camino
Real on the west, by the yet to be built Victoria Avenue on the
north, by an extension of California Drive to the east and by
Millbrae Avenue to the south.

If the rail authority moves forward as planned the city would need
to reconsider its plan, said City Manager Ralph Jaeck.

"No pun intended, but it would derail the project," he said.

The expanded plan would require an expansion of the station by
100 feet to the west, attorney Steven Meyers wrote in the city's
response. "These new tracks and parking structure are proposed to be
constructed on the same lands as Site One ... and would fundamentally
undermine the city's extensive efforts over the last 10 plus years."

The California High-Speed Rail Authority proposes a high-speed train
proposal hopes to create links between "the major metropolitan
centers of Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area in the north,
through the Central Valley, to Los Angeles and San Diego in the
south, according to <http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov> the group's
Web site. It is estimated to carry as many as 117 million passengers
annually by the year 2030.

A call to rail authority representatives was not returned.

The effort to develop the land in Site One near the Millbrae BART
Station began in 1996.

Last month, the council approved an extended timeline allowing
Fancher Partners, a development agency out of Irvine, Calif., more
time to acquire property for the development plan. The two building
configuration would be centered around a station square. The area
would include retail, restaurant, a seven-screen cinema, a 231-unit
condominium component, 32,000 square-feet of office space and a 131-
room hotel area. The proposed vision -- which has not been revisited
since early 2006 -- is dubbed the Millbrae Station Pavilion.